Menopause campaign cooks have great taste

WHEN Belles Berry and Mariella Frostrup first met, they immediately realised they could combine forces to create a cookbook for women in midlife.

They will be talking about their resulting book, Menolicious: Eat Your Way to a Better Menopause, which is on the Sunday Times bestseller list, at Henley town hall next month as part of Henley Literary Festival.

Broadcaster and journalist Mariella, 62, who lives in Somerset, says: “We met in Parliament Square, both of us with our little Suffragette-style placards, campaigning for the single prescription charge for hormone-replacement therapy.

“Belles sort of bounced into my life in a bundle of energy and optimism and joy and went, ‘why don’t we do a cookbook?’ and it seemed like the best idea in the world, that’s my brief account of it. Belles?”

A trained chef and the daughter of Dame Mary Berry, Belles, 51, who lives in Nettlebed, adds: “Yes, well, I didn’t know that Mariella is a cookbook addict, so actually it was serendipity.

“I think we both felt that through our menopause journey there wasn’t a cookbook out there with just recipes and so it was a no-brainer really for both of us. This is a dream come true and I think I’ve got another cookbook of recipes actually, because I’ve always written recipes and I love doing it.”

The cookbook covers everything from breakfasts and smoothies, energising and nutritious lunches, soups and snacks to breads, sweet treats and cocktails.

It provides a toolkit on how to create quick, tasty meals without feeling deprived, to boost energy levels and help with fluctuating hormones.

Mariella says: “There were three test points, if you will.

“One was obviously the sort of nutrition that our body needs particularly in midlife but to be honest really all our lives at some level. So we wanted these to be very specifically midlife supplementing.

“We wanted them to be easy, we’re very conscious of the fact that very few of us have got three hours to prepare a meal, so we tried to keep everything under half an hour. Belles and I compete over how quickly we can do them. I think I’m the fastest but she’s better.

“The other was just we wanted them to be affordable and tasty and bring in other ingredients to recipes in an arena that you might be used to working in. It’s just introducing new nutritious elements that are easy to have in your store cupboard and frankly anyone can rustle up.”

From freshly ground pesto to the “Queenager” cocktail, there are plenty of classics.

“Mariella’s lemongrass and mint mojito is made with honey,” says Belles. “The margarita has a bit of sugar, but the kombucha paloma is a winner and that’s just got two tablespoons of honey.

“Sunshine in a bowl is a vitamin D soup, it contains quite a lot of mushrooms which have got the vitamin, because going through to winter we all need to up our vitamin D.”

Mariella adds: “The kombucha is a really good example of another part of our ethos, which is that we’re not expecting everyone to walk around totally puritanical. What we’re saying is reboot, add some things that really are good for you, shake it up a bit.

“The soup is one of those things you can make at the weekend at your leisure and sip it, eat it all week rather than just responsively grabbing what your body at any moment feels like.”

Belles says: “Weekend batch cooking is brilliant to do. It’s cost-effective and you don’t waste food, which is a big one.”

“Absolutely,” says Mariella. “I think the trouble in midlife is that so much of it feels out of your control when it comes to perimenopause symptoms.

“It feels like a really confusing and intimidating time and I think cooking is one of the very few things that you can actually take control of. What you feed yourself is so important, it’s as important for your brain health as it is for your body.

“I think that this book really marks yet another watershed moment in the whole menopause campaigning sphere. We very much want this book to be a celebration of what’s great about middle age and onwards and how, with just a little bit of input, you can feel better and embark on brand-new times. I mean, Belles is a brilliant example, she has wanted to do a cookery book all her life and here she is, achieving that dream in her fifties.

“The narrative around menopause might be gloomy and doomy but once you gen up and take control of the things you can, then it’s one of the most liberating, fabulous, energising periods of your life.

“You don’t want to be the sad person sat there moving a lettuce leaf across your plate while everyone else is eating a feast. These recipes, my son loves the firecracker beef stir fry, my daughter’s obsessed with the cocktails and the smoothies, I think she only likes food in liquid form.

“My husband, after his initial reservations — and he can be quite stubborn — eventually once he understood that he wasn’t going to ‘catch’ menopause by eating food in Menolicious, now cooks from it all the time. He tries to hide it under the kitchen counter when I walk into the room, so he pretends he’s knocking up something out of his own imagination, but obviously I recognise our own recipes!” Was there any pressure over the baking recipes, given Belles’s famous mother?

“I’ve tried to steer a bit away from the baking because I think if you are a serious baker you’ll buy a baking book,” says Belles.

“I think Mum can have the baking world and I’m proud of her for it.”

Mariella adds: “Also I’m the world’s worst baker, so the porridge bread is pretty much the sum of my baking skills.”

Belles says: “Mum’s coming to watch on October 11, she’s on at 6pm and we’re on at noon so I’m going to watch her and she’s coming to watch us so that will be lovely.”

Mariella says: “Maybe we can do a very badly behaved lunch in-between…”

l Belles Berry and Mariella Frostrup will be in conversation with Steph Douglas at Henley town hall on Saturday, October 11 at noon. Tickets cost £12.50. Menolicious: Eat Your Way to a Better Menopause is out now. For more information, visit henleyliteraryfestival.co.uk